Union Minister Smriti Irani on Friday picked on Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for his comments on a court order that barred news website The Wire from publishing articles on a company owned by Jay Shah, the son of Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah.
Irani tweeted that a person “out on bail” was “mocking” the courts, in apparent reference to the National Herald case. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had accused Sonia and Rahul Gandhi of conspiracy and cheating with the aim to acquire properties and assets owned by the National Herald newspaper. The case, in which other Congress leaders including Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda are involved, is ongoing.
Earlier on Friday, Gandhi had taken a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversy around the financial dealings of a company owned by Jay Shah. “Friends, I will neither speak about ‘Shah-zada’ nor will let anyone speak,” he had tweeted in Hindi.
On Monday October 16, the Ahmedabad metropolitan court issued an ex parte injunction against The Wire from publishing any content “directly or indirectly” about Jay Shah till the defamation suit he filed against the website is disposed of.
On October 9, Jay Shah had filed a defamation case against the website, its senior editors, and a reporter for an article which noted that the revenues of his company, Temple Enterprise Pvt Ltd, had grown massively in 2015-’16, the year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. The article mentioned that this spike in revenue came even as the company posted a loss of Rs 1.4 crore the same year. It also reported on loans received by Shah’s companies.
Amit Shah had defended his son and denied these allegations. “If you have evidence to prove your allegations, bring it to the court,” the BJP chief had said.
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